Broadband News

BT Wholesale to enable 10 exchanges

BT Wholesale has informed us that a total of 10 exchanges have now hit reached the point where they will gain an ADSL service as the result of the demand registration scheme.

Todmorden was the only one expected today, and it looks like they will be getting ADSL very soon, November in fact. BT Wholesale confirms that work is underway at the exchange and in the network
side also.

Six other exchanges that have reached the 75% Advance Order stage are Irby on the Wirral, Paddock Wood and Pembury in Kent, Penn in Buckinghamshire, Ponteland in Northumberland and Twyford in
Berkshire. It is hoped that these exchanges will be going live in December 2002.

That makes 7 exchanges, the remaining three are Leek, Bishops Waltham and Kesgrave. They haven't quite made the 75% mark yet, but this is expected to happen next week.

These exchanges are getting ADSL very much due to the hardwork put in by campaigners in the local areas, ensuring that people are aware of Broadband and the demand scheme. Tom Byrne of the
Irby Campaign says “The effort by all our team has been fantastic and the news
that Irby will be one of the first exchanges upgraded by BT under this scheme has made all the effort worthwhile.”. Ben Verwaayen has also stated that BT is now pulling out the stops to
get the exchanges enabled as soon as possible.

It is nice to be able to publish some good news, lets hope that this news is the start of more batches of exchanges every month. Currently there are seventy exchanges over 50% of the way to their
trigger level, and of the remaining 16 exchanges that have hit the trigger level the following 10 exchanges are collecting advance orders:

Alton, Hampshire

Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

Buckley, Flintshire

Drayton, Norfolk

Harrowden, Northamptonshire

Inverness Culloden

Ivybridge, Devon

Knaresborough, North Yorkshire

Merthyr Tydfil

Shaw, Greater Manchester

The other six exchanges are awaiting confirmation of the initial trigger.